The 4.5 Songs You Need to Hear This Week

Happy to announce that because the sun is finally shining after 6 p.m. again that this week's crop of songs you need to hear are bright, bold big ones that are perfect for playing as you soak up that much-needed natural light again. Let the serotonin come rushing back with the 4.5 Songs You Need to Hear This Week, including a very magical appearance from... Will Smith.

The long-teased collective of East Coast heavyweights (including members of Flatbush Zombies, Pro Era, Joey Bada$$ and more) dropped their first single this week. "Left Hand" is a posse track featuring the best parts of New York rap: high energy flow, telling everybody and their grandmother to fuck off, and a slightly unsettling beat that sounds like a ghost wearing Timbs emerging from a manhole cover (still slaps though). Honestly though, my favorite part is the accompanying visuals they dropped that reads like the character select screen for a N.Y. rap-themed fighting game (one that doesn’t suck)—Gabe Conte, digital producer

Sigrid, "Business Dinners"

A pop song about refusing to go out and network and pretend you're anything other than what you really are, with production that sounds like SOPHIE sucked in a barrel of helium and hit record, sung by Norway's greatest musical export of the past several years, from the best pop album of the year? Check, check, check, and check.—Brennan Carley, associate editor

Megan Thee Stallion, "Fire in the Booth, Pt.1"

Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion has been in the game for a hot minute, and her new Beats 1 freestyle proves she’s one of the most talented rappers around right now, full stop. The "Big Ole Freak" rapper (don’t sleep on that) absolutely shuts it down with lines like “When I switch my hair to blonde / I’m finna turn up like Goku." Megan also confirmed this week that her next album, FEVER, will drop in April, so it’s safe to say that it's only up from here for Hot Girl Meg.—Luke Leifeste, senior social manager

Nasty Cherry, "Win"

This is what it would sound like if The Strokes (circa '01) were instead an all-female group that had somehow time-traveled to 2019, grabbed the best bits and bobs of what makes pop so damn good, and brought it back with them. "Win" is as sticky a song as you'll find this year, with a chorus that'll live with you long after the track stops playing. More Nasty Cherry soon, please.—B.C.

And our .5 of the week...

Will Smith rapping in the Aladdin trailer

For some reason there is a live-action Aladdin on the way, with Will Smith as the Genie. In the Disney flick's latest trailer, we get a tantalizing glimpse of Smith's interpretation of "Friend Like Me," originally performed by Robin Williams as cartoon Genie. "You ain't never had a friend like me," Smith jubilantly exclaims, but sadly, we must assign this very statement an unprecedented five Live-Action Pinocchios. As the record clearly shows, Smith has made similar overtures before, most notably to his son in the 1997 song "Just the Two of Us." His loyalty pledge now rings hollow, and Aladdin would be wise to proceed with caution.—Alex Shultz, editorial assistant